In a conventional through-hole mounting structure disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,678 corresponding to JP-3669224, each terminal of a connector is inserted into a through hole formed in a circuit board. A conductive land is formed on an inner wall of the hole and formed on a front surface of the board around an opening of the hole. The terminal of the connector is soldered to the land in a reflow process so that the connector is electrically and mechanically connected to the circuit board. Thus, the connector is mounted to the front surface of the board. Since the terminal of the connector is exposed to a back surface of the board, other components cannot be mounted to the back surface of the board, directly beneath the through hole. Therefore, the through-hole mounting structure limits circuit density of the circuit board.
In a surface mounting structure disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,524 corresponding to JP-2004-206924A, each terminal of a connector is bent along a surface of a circuit board and soldered to a land formed on the surface of the circuit board. The surface mounting structure allows electronic components to be mounted on each side of the circuit board so that high circuit density of the circuit board can be achieved.
In such a mounting structure, the terminal of the connector is soldered to the land formed on the circuit board. To reduce the size of the circuit board, i.e., to improve circuit density of the circuit board, contact area between the terminal and the land is reduced. Therefore, the terminal of the connector must be accurately positioned relative to the land formed on the circuit board in order to ensure connection reliability between the connector and the circuit board.
In the surface mounting structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,524, the terminal is disposed in a body of the connector and extends from the connector body to the surface of the circuit board. Since the connector body is placed on the circuit board, the length of the terminal is relatively long. Therefore, displacement of the terminal relative to the connector body causes large displacement of the terminal relative to the land formed on the circuit board. It is difficult to ensure the connection reliability between the connector and the circuit board.